Page:American Journal of Sociology Volume 4.djvu/545

 CRIMINAL ANTHROPOLOGY AND JURISPRUDENCE 525

anthropology, there is not the interest and cooperation in America which would otherwise obtain. Americans, as a rule, are familiar only with the Italian school, the study and theories of the sociologists and psychologists being unknown. The "criminal type" is considered here as the pith of the whole science, and its establishment as a fact is regarded as the object of all investigation, whereas it is only one of the most debatable theories, is only inconclusively proved, and is so recog- nized in Europe. The increased amount of English writing and trans- lation is tending to remove these erroneous, narrow views, and thus to establish a less critical and more scientific attitude.

The following is a brief resume of the conclusions of the criminal anthropologists : '

1. Criminal anthropology renounces entirely the law of retaliation as the end, principle, or basis of judicial punishment.

2. The purpose of punishment is the necessity of protecting society against the consequences of crime, either by moral reclamation of the criminal or by his removal from society. Punishment is not for the purpose of satis- fying vengeance.

3. Society should have legal rights and privileges equal to those of the criminal, and systems and institutions should be modified to conform to this view. An absolute equality for each should be maintained.

4. In criminal anthropology it is not sufficient to study the fact of crime. The criminal must also be considered. It has become necessary to define the causes which produce crime, to study the sphere of action of the criminal, as well as to give attention to measures for the safety of society against his acts. Criminal anthropology does not study him in the abstract and speculate over his guilt and responsibility, but it analyzes him according to results of purely scientific investigation and with the aid of exact methods.

5. In crime the results of two factors are seen reciprocally reacting : (i) the individual peculiarities in the nature of the criminal, or his psycho- physical organization ; (2) the peculiarities of external influences, such as climate, country, social surroundings, etc.

6. Relying upon exact methods, criminal anthropology reveals the crimi- nal as possessing an organization more or less unfortunate, vicious, impov- erished, ill-balanced, defective, and not adapted to struggle with surrounding conditions, and, consequently, incapable of maintaining the struggle in legally established ways. This defect of adaptation varies with conditions.

7. The causes of crime are three : immediate, which arise from the char- acter of the individual ; remote, which are found in his unfavorable surround- ings, under the influence of which organic peculiarities are developed into

' Cf. Report of United States Commissioner of Education, lSq3-4, P- 1684.